The rapid growth in mobile communications has led to an increasing demand for wide-
band high data rate communications services. In recent years, Distributed Antenna
Systems (DAS) has emerged as a promising candidate for future (beyond 3G or 4G)
mobile communications, as illustrated by projects such as FRAMES and FuTURE. The
architecture of DAS inherits and develops the concepts of pico- or micro-cell systems,
where multiple distributed antennas or access points (AP) are connected to and con-
trolled by a central unit.
The goal of this book is to provide a concise but lucid explanation and deriva-
tion of the fundamentals of spread-spectrum communication systems. Although
spread-spectrum communication is a staple topic in textbooks on digital com-
munication, its treatment is usually cursory, and the subject warrants a more
intensive exposition. Originally adopted in military networks as a means of
ensuring secure communication when confronted with the threats of jamming
and interception, spread-spectrum systems are now the core of commercial ap-
plications such as mobile cellular and satellite communication.
The goal of this book is to provide a concise but lucid explanation and deriva-
tion of the fundamentals of spread-spectrum communication systems. Although
spread-spectrum communication is a staple topic in textbooks on digital com-
munication, its treatment is usually cursory, and the subject warrants a more
intensive exposition. Originally adopted in military networks as a means of
ensuring secure communication when confronted with the threats of jamming
and interception, spread-spectrum systems are now the core of commercial ap-
plications such as mobile cellular and satellite communication.
A wireless ad-hoc network is a wireless network deployed without any infrastructure. In
such a network, there is no access point or wireless router to forward messages among the
computing devices. Instead, these devices depend on the ad-hoc mode of their wireless net‐
work interface cards to communicate with each other. If the nodes are within the transmis‐
sion range of the wireless signal, they can send messages to each other directly. Otherwise,
the nodes in between will forward the messages for them. Thus, each node is both an end
system and a router simultaneously.
Wireless communications, together with its applications and underlying technologies, is
among today’s most active areas of technology development. The very rapid pace of im-
provements in both custom and programmable integrated circuits for signal processing ap-
plications has led to the justfiable view of advanced signal processing as a key enabler of the
aggressively escalating capacity demands of emerging wireless systems. Consequently, there
has been a tremendous and very widespread effort on the part of the research community
to develop novel signal processing techniques that can fulfill this promise.
